Confederate Flag or coincidence on New York fire department logo?

By
Melissa Bell

The Confederate Flag (Mickey Welsh / Bloomberg News)

Long Island, N.Y., is a far distance from the Deep South, but an anonymous fireman has come forward to NBC news with a complaint that the Elmont Fire Department of Long Island uses the Confederate Flag in its logo.

The logo and patches both have imagery that appears to mimic the design of the Confederate flag, and a photograph leaked to NBC News shows what appears to be a Confederate Flag hanging inside the fire station.

Though the firemen are all volunteers, the department is funded by taxpayers. The firefighter who spoke to the news station is black and said he felt uncomfortable with the imagery.

Here's one of the group's logos taken from a screengrab of the NBC video:

The fire department's commissioner, Ralph Esposito, said the logo was an American flag and cited the department's long tradition dating back to 1924.

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